Tank Controls Are the Objectively Perfect Control Scheme

[fOx]

Tank controls are the perfect control scheme for video games as an art form. If there is a fault, it lies with the player base, not the controls. They were unworthy. Let me explain why.

Tank controls allow for a game director to utilize pre-established camera angles, making for more creative visual design focus. If you utilize modern controls with pre set camera angles, then the control scheme has to reorient to match the altered camera. What may have been left, is now up, or right. This can disrupt your movement during key moments. Tank controls also free up one of your controller sticks for altered use. Instead of using one stick to control the camera, and one to control movement, you can remove camera control entirely, and use the stick for something else. The possibilities are endless. But don't take my word for it. Lets look at a couple of genres, and see what games are the best titles in those genres. See if you can notice any similarities between them.

Best Horror Game:
In terms of story, it is Silent Hill 2. In terms of game design, it is the remake of Resident Evil 1. For the sake of argument, we'll split the difference and put them both in first.

Best Third Person Shooter:
Why, of course it is Resident Evil 4.

Best Action Game:
God Hand clenches the title.

Best Adventure Game:
Grim Fandango is a shoe in

Best Mech Game:
Steel Battalion

Best First Person Shooter:
Doom

What do all of these games have in common? Why, yes, you're right. Tank controls. Video games with tank controls dominated every single genre they were used in, except for platformers (which are an inferior game genre). Unfortunately, because tank controls were so evolved, they began to see reduced use. But imagine a world in which tank controls were the norm. We could have seen tank controls used in strategy games, dating sims, puzzle games, cooking games, and farming simulators. Video games as an art form could have been further uplifted. Sadly these games will never come to fruition. I would like to see more games use tank controls. I would like to see most games use tank controls. I don't think that it is a coincidence that resident evil and silent hill became much worse at the exact time that they ditched tank controls. Of course they did.

 

[Kwak]

Define 'tank controls'.

 

[deleted20220709]

DELETED

 

[Chimpzy]

Doom only has tank controls if you use the default bindings and completely ignore the strafe keys. No one who knows about either does.

 

[Kae]

Yes, particularly in games with fixed camera angles, like for example I remember playing through Eternal Darkness and getting turned around sometimes when the angle changed, a problem easily fixed with tank controls, not to mention that another fault with that game is that it's actually super easy and having the bit more complicated controls would have helped make the enemies a bit more intimating, though it'd probably still have been easy.

In any case while I don't think they are universally applicable, like for example old Devil May Cry games share the exact same problem that I described for Eternal Darkness and while it is annoying I don't think it would be the right call for those games as it'd make the combat system would need to be completely retooled to fit that control system, which probably isn't impossible since as you mention God Hand exists, but I haven't played it so I don't really know how it can be executed in a fast paced game action game, I mean I guess Resident Evil 4 is an example on how to do it but it is slow compared to a DMC.

 

[Dreiko]

I never was one to complain about controls in general. You just learn them and then they're whatever. I think people complaining about controls just don't like having to put in some time adjusting themselves to something new.

Like for example it felt extremely bizarre and wrong for like half an hour when in soulsborne games they took the attack button that was supposed to be like square or circle and put it on R1, but then it was like whatever. I think they did this to dissuade people from button mashing more than for any other reason, cause it's a little harder to mash the triggers.


The only issue with controls is if they're unresponsive or somehow badly implemented.

 

[bluegate]

Plenty of games out there that use locked camera angles and use camera ankered controls and just work.

Only thing the game needs to do is remember the previous camera's orientation when changing an angle and the analogue stick is still pressed down.

So that if on one screen pushing NW made your character walk forward and on the next screen pushing NE will make it go forward, just map the controls around so that NW internally points to NE if the player is still holding down the analogue stick through a camera change.

 

[Kyrian007]

Its a well illustrated theory, but with one problem.

See if you can notice any similarities between them.

I did. Each of those games is over a decade old. The point I would take away from those examples is not that tank controls are superior, but that old games are better than new ones and no "genre standout" games have been made for over a decade. Which I don't believe either, but its what comes to mind before tank controls.

 

[BrawlMan]

I do have my respects for the old-school, but I am glad tank controls have gone away. They were a limitation of technology and game design. I'll happily take-over-the-shoulder horror/action-horror games over tank controls any day of the week. It's why I love games like Evil Within 2, REmake 2, and Shadows of the Damned so much. While some parts of me miss the atmosphere of CG backgrounds and 3d models, there is not point in doing that again, unless some fan of that stuff bothers making their own throwback game on Steam. Tank Controls reached their peak at Resident Evil 1 Remake (to the point you can turn them off in the HD versions/PC port) and RE4 to a lesser extent. To say they are superior to any other control scheme is a lie and being blinded by nostalgia goggles.

 

[Agema]

Its a well illustrated theory, but with one problem.

I did. Each of those games is over a decade old.

There are similarities here to the concept that any list of the greatest film of all time (as put to film critics, anyway*) is completely dominated by older movies, as if hardly anyone makes classics anymore. It's really just that something that is too recent is hard to recognise as a classic, as a classic needs to stand the test of time.

* If you ask the general public what the greatest movie of all time is, a load of twonks will vote for whatever the last blockbuster they enjoyed was, even though they'll have forgotten it in five years time. They treat voting in political elections in much the same way, too.

 

[stroopwafel]

I recently replayed RE Remake and I can't deny I really miss this style of game. I wouldn't say tank controls are 'perfect' but they really fit in a game specifically built around them like those classic RE titles. Ofcourse they come from necessity considering those old systems couldn't render entire 3D worlds with any kind of high quality graphics but working around those limitations really gave the developers more creativity in how to engage with the player's imagination(the out-of-sights footsteps for example or the authentic fog in silent hill). Now everything can be rendered in full 3D and there is no reason to compensate with different techniques. It made games much more visually and technically impressive but I think also some of that authenticity is lost. Pretty much every game with a modern control scheme plays the exact same way.

RE4 is one of my most favorite games of all time but this is in no small part thanks to them not trying to fit an existing formula inside an established genre. It's the furthest away from the dime a dozen third person shooters and still has that claustrophobic RE dread but re-imagined. I think the tank controls in RE4 are still perfect simply because they so flawlessly accomodate to the specifics of this game. Every element is built around it. I've been replaying the game atleast once a year for 15 years now and the feel of the gameplay is still unmatched to this day. It's a control scheme that compared to a modern game might feel counterintuitive at first but having this learning or adjustment period provides an experience that is still so unique to just this one game. I guess the stars really did align with RE4 and it's unlikely we'll ever see anything like it again but I do wish it was seen as an example that not all games need to adopt the exact same control scheme just for convenience sake.

Having said that though I do think capcom did a tremendous job with RE2 Remake. It modernized the 'archaic' control scheme of the original and replicated it's limitations with restraints in gameplay, highly atmospheric camera views and areas obfuscated by debris and shadows that never feels 'artificial' in it's design. It's RE2 for the modern audience and just as good.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Classic tank controls are perfect for games with fixed camera angles. Games with fixed camera angles are shit (and like many other shit conventions, things we put with back in the day because it was all there was). RE4 and the RE2make showed that games are perfectly fine without them.

 

[Samtemdo8]

Fixed Cameras made the level design far more memorable.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

My yay vote comes with caveat that it depends on the game type, and that game type is pretty much relegated to involving environmental design like the classic RE games.

 

[stroopwafel]

It is generally accepted that Tank Control means that your inputs are interpreted not from the angle of the camera but from the orientation of the character. So if you press "forward" the PC will walk ahead, not up/away from the camera. They also tend to feature A/D on a keyboard (or moving the left thumb stick sideways) as turning left/right instead of strafing.

I mean, I think f0x is very wrong. Tank controls were developed because fixed camera angles were a necessity due to very limited processing power that massively constrained how much could be rendered at any one point. It is not that Tank Controls are necessarily bad, for their intended genre they work really well. It is that they are counter-intuitive and often clunky. They require the game to give up on precision movement and fluid movement in order to work.

The 2015 re-release of RE Remake fixed this by providing an alternative control scheme where the character moved in the direction of the analogue stick not the direction the character was facing. I believe it was the most popular game on psn of that year and provided capcom the confidence to steer RE back to it's roots.

I guess you could be right that tank controls itself are outdated but they still provide an experience that neither third person action games nor first person horror games can replace. It also depends on the way tank controls are implemented. In RE1 they are indeed clunky(but fit the style of game) but the more action oriented RE4 is built around precise movement espescially in terms of shooting mechanics.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I never was one to complain about controls in general. You just learn them and then they're whatever. I think people complaining about controls just don't like having to put in some time adjusting themselves to something new.

Like for example it felt extremely bizarre and wrong for like half an hour when in soulsborne games they took the attack button that was supposed to be like square or circle and put it on R1, but then it was like whatever. I think they did this to dissuade people from button mashing more than for any other reason, cause it's a little harder to mash the triggers.

More likely done to be able to move the camera around while attacking or blocking.

 

[Dreiko]

Classic tank controls are perfect for games with fixed camera angles. Games with fixed camera angles are shit (and like many other shit conventions, things we put with back in the day because it was all there was). RE4 and the RE2make showed that games are perfectly fine without them.

I actually adore fixed camera angle Jrpgs. I was super hype world of final fantasy had that. It felt so nice. For action games it's different but there's something special about the ps1 era Jrpgs and those fixed camera angles are a part of it.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Best Adventure Game:
Grim Fandango is a shoe in

Now, I do enjoy being wrong, but Grim Fandango had point and click controls and not tank. He also just walks in the direction you press, if you use the keyboard, which isn't tank controls. Is this just because I played the remastered version? Did the original version use tank controls with no point and click?

 

[bluegate]

Now, I do enjoy being wrong, but Grim Fandango had point and click controls and not tank. He also just walks in the direction you press, if you use the keyboard, which isn't tank controls. Is this just because I played the remastered version? Did the original version use tank controls with no point and click?

There should be an option in the remastered version to turn on Tank Controls.

There's a Trophy for it on PS4, I assume there's something similar for the Steam version.

 

[Worgen]

Tank controls are fine for somethings and crap for others.